A few years ago, we had a fill-in VP for our department. She took over after the former VP left and was fulfilling her job duties as the EOIO and VP of HR. She had worked with all 14 of us for about 18 months when this happened.

It was our holiday luncheon at a nice restaurant. We had just completed our number draw gift exchange and were all in a good mood. The Temp VP then handed out gifts just to her 7 direct reports and made a big deal about how they helped her so much through the last year, naming each by name. The rest of just sat there, with no mentions how we also helped her. No expressions of gratitude or a small trinket to show her thanks. Needless to say the rest of us felt pretty lousy and couldn't leave fast enough.

Even years later it still upsets me how the rest of the office was basically ignored.

I ran into practically the same thing today. Our CEO didn't include me on his Holiday message. And I am completely bummed about it. I emailed my supervisor who was copied on the email. And basically got told to don't worry about it. You either do it for all or keep it secret from those you don't do.

It's this type of exec who give managers a bad name - sure she is doing something "nice", but she is also demonstrating that she is completely self absorbed and out of touch from the rest of the organization and employees. There are situations where singling a person out for special praise is appropriate, but certain times and certain ways. Not like this.

Yeah, I can understand being bummed. She should've chosen a different time to give those 7 their gifts, or had something outwardly equal to give to everyone. And, she could've praised everyone as well. Not well-handled.

Wow, that is incredible! I give everyone in our organization (only 15 people) little gift bags of homemade candy and then an extra gift card to my direct staff but it is all done one-on-one the day of our holiday party. I would never do that at a party that everyone attends!

I wonder if it was a planning fail. That she was expecting each manager to speak and recognize their employees in attendance. Maybe that was the norm in her previous assignments. But she should have confirmed.